Open mic Live @ The Carib

Enjoy this Labour Day holiday listening to new voices in R&B, reggae, classical music and new wave kaiso at the launch of The Little Carib Theatre’s Open Mic night series – Live @ The Carib – starting on Wednesday.

The venue has served as a beacon in Woodbrook for the creative arts scene since its inception in 1948 under the hands of the legendary Beryl McBurnie. Today, the existing team wants to make sure the theatre stays as such in the minds of the community, all the while keeping up with the times and interests of the young and old.

Live @ The Carib serves as an open call to citizens and visitors alike to come and share their talent – and even better, do it on an iconic stage that’s going strong 70 years later.

“This series will recur on one Wednesday every month, and each edition will feature one standout act amongst a colourful line-up of young and up-and-coming singers, rappers, musicians, poets and comics (perhaps some familiar too),” shared Kara Martin, who handles Little Carib's marketing and social media and is curating the series.

3Canal’s Stanton Kewley will headline the launch, serving the crowd with some sharp-tongued spoken word. He will be joined by seven other acts on the night. These include poet and rapper Doug Dusty, indie-folk "Bohemian" Ria Ghent, house rapso and new wave kaiso artiste A Rainy Weather, reggae outfit Jahmafia and millennial poet and performer, Arielle John, among others – each one allotted 10 minutes to perform.

After the show because there will be a specially-curated playlist provided by Saddle Road Sessions – a new local underground radio show Martin just so happened to stumble upon on Instagram two weeks leading up to the show.

“Not only are they local, they’re not afraid of championing even the most ‘out there’ artists and genres, which I find perfectly mirrors our mission for the Open Mic Series,” she added.

Disenfranchised with the state of radio, high school friends Micah Jodhan and Gregory Pereira decided to do something about it. They created Saddle Road Sessions – a multi-segment internet radio show to showcase alternative genres from around the world. Segments include: Fresh Picks, Non-Western Selection, Local Flavour and more. They can be found on Instagram via @saddleroadsessions.

There are no formal auditions for Live @ The Carib, but for the sake of quality control, interested artistes are encouraged to write in to introduce themselves and share examples of any available tracks, demos or performance reels, even home-made recordings, they might have, “just so we have an idea of how to curate each show based on the different types of acts and genres coming through,” said Martin.

“This is both a fundraiser for The Carib’s ongoing community projects, as well as serves as a bit of a week-night lime to make sure our neighbours know we are here more than ever,” she added.

“We want to engage, connect and collaborate with people of all interests, and we deliberately want to make this series a relaxed affair for that reason. So please don’t be afraid to approach us – we at The Carib are here to serve the community as much as we intend to enliven it with more inclusive events such as this.”

* The Live @ The Carib launch begins 7 pm on June 19. To apply to perform, write to littlecarib@gmail.com. Keep up to date with goings-on at The Carib via www.littlecarib.com, Facebook – The Little Carib Theatre and Instagram – @thelittlecarib